Skill Chain help

[HDS]

Just a question, why don't you party with more people lol.

[DelennFFXI]

Just my two (three?) cents:

1. Your WS should fire 3 seconds after you see "X readies Y" in the log to skillchain (SC)
   
   The animation means nothing, since it can be very lagged. On the other hand, lag's affect on the log is insignificant.
   
2. For thief, I recommend using two macros
   
   When I only had Sneak Attack, I used:
   
   Macro1:
   /ja "Sneak Attack" <me>
   
   Macro2:
   /ws "Viper Bite"
   
   This is because you can hit the WS macro anytime during the SA animation and still skillchain. This also prevents an extra normal attack slipping in, which I found VERY annoying.
   
   The SA macro should be hit ~1.5 seconds after the "readies" comment to force the animation to overlap, then hit your WS macro.
   
   FYI, now I use:
   
   Macro1:
   /ja "Sneak Attack" <me>
   /wait 2
   /ja "Trick Attack" <me>
   
   Macro2:
   /ws "Dancing Edge"
   
3. SC damage depends on the following factors:
   
   1) Damage of the closer (ie. hit that generates the skillchain)
   2) Current length of the chain
   3) Level of the SC (1, 2, or 3)
   4) If the mob resists the SC
   
   For LV1 SCs: 50% > 60% > 75%
   For LV2 SCs: 60% > 75% > 100%
   For LV3 SCs: 100% > 150% > 200%
   
   Example:
   Fast Blade(100 dmg) > Red Lotus Blade(100 dmg) > Combo(100 dmg)
   
   Results in a Liquefaction (LV1 Fire) SC of 100*50% = 50 dmg
   
   and results in a Fusion (LV2 Fire/Light) SC of 100*75% = 75 dmg
   
   this is without any resistance.

Hope that helps.